A little bit about Rugby

     One of the most popular sports on TV audience in the world, rugby has some similarities with football (soccer in some other lands). The jerseys, shorts and stocks are quite similar, it's played in an outdoor fray, and you have to "domain territory" to achieve your goals (the main scoring moment in a rugby is called TRY - 5 points). But the differences are notorious, indeed in the players' behaviour to the referee during a match, with the captain always being very polite towards him.

     The players use the hands to hold the ball and are just allowed to pass the ball to a teammate backwards or sidewards. And there's a bow in both extremes of the pitch where the player tries to shoot the ball inside the angle, be in a penalty after the opponent's foul, or after a try as a bonus to score two more points for his team. If a player wants to pass forwards, he has to kick the ball, and the teammate to grab this one cannot be in front of the ball line, because he will be ruled off-side. The match lasts 80 minutes plus injury time according to the referee's criteira and the match development (two 40-minute half-times). The main objective is the trespassing of the final line of the opponent team with one of the players holding the ball (the already mentioned "try"), that brings five points for the scorers, plus a 2-point bonus if the kicker converts a shot into the bow after the maxim moment. The conversion happens when the player kicks the ball in to the target with the play going on (drop goal) or in a penalty against their opponents, both bringing 3 points for the team.

      This sport can be practiced on a lawn pitch or on the sand (beach rugby, played in some coastal cities in the world) and the modalities are 15-a-side or 7-a-side, this last one going to be olympic sport in Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, in 2016. By far, the 15-a-side competition is more professional, attractive and successful than the future olympic event.

      The main institution that coordenates, organizes and makes the rules of the game in the world is the International Rugby Union (IRB), composed by 114 countries as members, and they are the "copyrighters" of the main tournament of this sport: the RWC (Rugby World Cup) played for 20 national teams in each four years since 1987. The last edition was in New Zealand, 2011, and the hosts were the champions for the second time, beating France in the final match. There's also female rugby tournaments, indeed a world cup, and New Zealand won the latest four female editions of the RWC.



The captain of NZ rugby team, the "All-Blacks", holding the Webb Ellis Trophy as the new World Champions. SITE: Daily  Record
(dailyrecord.co.uk)



       The most traditional countries in this sport are Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, France and England. Eire and Ulster compete as one only team (Ireland), Argentina are supreme in the Americas, Japan in Asia, and almost all the countries in Oceania adopted rugby as their most popular sport.

       The next RWC will be in England, in 2015, and Japan, four years later.

RUGBY WORLD CHAMPIONS

Year	Host Country(ies)	Champions	Runners-Up
1987	Australia/New Zealand	New Zealand	France
1991	England/France/Ireland/Scotland/Wales	Australia	England
1995	South Africa	South Africa	New Zealand
1999	Wales	Australia	France
2003	Australia	England	Australia
2007	France	South Africa	England
2011	New Zealand	New Zealand	France